


Reflections in Time

by Tarlan



Category: Terminator Salvation (2009), The Terminator (1984)
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, Gen, POV First Person, Time Travel, Trope Bingo Round 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-17
Updated: 2013-09-17
Packaged: 2017-12-26 21:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/970578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kyle recalls moments in time with John Connor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflections in Time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Trope Bingo Round 2 prompt: time travel

John Connor was my hero. In the early days I had heard his voice on the radio so many times - the voice of the human resistance to SkyNet - giving hope to the ever-decreasing number of survivors in this war raging against the machines. I had entertained dreams of meeting my hero one day, of joining him in battle, and fighting by his side. Yet, even in those dreams I had never expected to be more than just another soldier willing to die for just a simple nod of acknowledgment from him. Certainly, I had never expected John Connor to fight his way into a SkyNet stronghold with only one objective in mind - saving _me_.

Three years later I was still in the dark, wondering why both John Connor and SkyNet had considered me so important. Sometimes I would catch John staring at me with a bittersweet expression and so much almost paternal pride that it made me ache inside for the family I had already lost to this man-made apocalypse.

Sometimes I would feel the envy of others, especially those times when John would seek me out, sliding down the wall to sit beside me at the end of another tiring day.

I loved those moments, listening to John recall stories from his childhood, and especially of his mother. Sarah Connor had known the war was coming years before SkyNet released the first attack wave against mankind, and John would regale me with stories of her bravery when most believed her to be insane. Often he would draw a battered photo from an inner pocket, kept close to his strongly beating heart - Marcus Wright's heart - until, one day, he gave that photo to me for safekeeping.

It was my prize possession.

She was so beautiful yet so sad. I could see her strength and resolve, and her inner pain, and I could see it mirrored in her son's green-gold eyes; eyes that seemed so familiar to me and yet I could not place from where. John did not have his mother's eyes - except in the deep emotions shining through them.

When the photo burned, destroyed when a Terminator infiltrated our camp, I no longer had even that means to make a comparison any more. It took me a week to confess to John that the precious photo was gone, but John had merely clamped a hand on my shoulder and told me it was okay, and that I would understand why soon enough.

A few months later we stood in the center of SkyNet, on the verge of defeating SkyNet once and for all, and I listened in amazement as all the small threads of stories told by John slowly drew together.

"SkyNet built a time machine with the sole intention of killing my mother before I was born. It's already sent back a T800." He glanced around the group of weary soldiers. "This is how my mother knew about the coming storm." John turned to look directly at me. "Someone has to go back in time to protect her."

I straightened, finally understanding the bittersweet looks I had gained over these years - and the unconditional pride. I finally understood why SkyNet had wanted me dead, knowing I had an important part to play in both the present and now the past. I nodded, and saw his eyes glisten with unshed tears. I stripped out of my clothes, knowing I could not enter the machine with anything, but I knew from John's stories that I would find clothing and weapons back in the past. I stepped into the machine.

"I'll protect her with my life," I stated solemnly.

As he pressed the control that would send me back in time to 1984, I thought I heard his voice crack as he whispered, "I know you will."

I stared at him as the machine activated, and as the future crashed into the past, for a single moment, I thought I saw myself in his eyes.

END


End file.
